Chapter X.
On the exercise of grace with respect to things to be sought and prayed for.
Concerning the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, this must be held: that although God is most generous and more ready to give than we are to receive, nevertheless He wills to be prayed to by us, so that He may have occasion to bestow the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, He wills to be prayed to not only by mental prayer, which is "the ascent of the intellect to God," but also by vocal prayer, which is "the petition of fitting things from God," not only through ourselves, but also through the Saints as through helpers divinely given to us, so that what we are less worthy to obtain through ourselves we may be able to obtain through the Saints.
And because we know not what we should pray for as we ought, lest we wander in uncertainty, He handed down to us a form in the prayer which He composed, in which under the sevenfold number of petitions the universality of things to be sought is comprehended.
Now the reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because the First Principle, just as He is supremely true and good in Himself, so He is merciful and just in His work. And since He is most merciful, He most willingly condescends to human misery through the infusion of His grace. But because He is at the same time just, He does not give the perfect gift except to the one who desires it, does not give grace except to the one who gives thanks, does not bestow mercy except on the one who acknowledges his misery, so that the freedom of the will may be preserved, the nobility of the gift may not be cheapened, and the worship of divine honor may persevere whole and entire. Since therefore it belongs to the one who prays to seek divine assistance, to acknowledge his own deficiency, and to give thanks for the benefit freely given: hence it is that prayer disposes one to the reception of divine gifts, and God wills to be prayed to for this purpose, that He may bestow His gifts.
Furthermore, because in order that desire may effectively tend upward to obtain divine gifts, it is necessary that our affection be fervent and our thought collected into one, and that our expectation be certain and firm; and because our heart is frequently tepid, frequently scattered, and frequently even fearful on account of the remorse of sin, not daring to appear by itself before the divine sight: hence it is that the Lord willed that we pray not only mentally, but also vocally, for the arousal of our affection through words and for the recollection of our thoughts through the meaning of words.
He also willed that we pray through the Saints, and the Saints for us, to give confidence to the fearful, so that those who do not dare or cannot obtain through themselves may obtain through suitable intercessors: and through this, humility may be preserved in those who pray, dignity may be declared in the Saints who intercede, and charity and unity may be shown in all the members of Christ, whereby the lower members may have confident recourse to the higher, and the higher may generously condescend to the lower.
Finally, because God, who is just and merciful, ought not to hear us except in those things which pertain to his honor and to our salvation—and such things are those which pertain to the reward of the homeland and to the provision for the journey, the first being three and the following four—hence it is that the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, which teach us what we ought profitably to ask, are seven.
For those things which pertain to divine honor and the reward of the homeland are three, namely the understanding of truth, the reverence of majesty, and the concord of will; or in other words, it is either the vision of the highest truth, which is not seen except by the pure and holy, and this is asked when it is said: Hallowed be thy name, that is, may the knowledge of thy name be given to the perfect, holy, and pure; or it is the attainment of the supremely exalted, which makes kings and through which the kingdom is possessed, and this is asked when it is said: Thy kingdom come; or it is the enjoyment of the highest good, which is not given except to those who have their wills conformed to the divine will, and this is asked when it is said: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Those things, however, which pertain to the passage of the journey regard either the bestowal of a benefiting good or the removal of a harming evil. The bestowal of a benefiting good is asked for in the daily or supersubstantial bread, in which is asked whatever is necessary for the preservation of present life, whether according to spirit or according to body. The removal of a harming evil is asked in the three last petitions: because every evil either has the character of the past, or the future, or the present; or otherwise, it has the character of the evil of fault, or of struggle, or of punishment. The first is asked to be removed in the forgiveness of debts; the second in the victory over temptations; the third and last, in deliverance from the oppression of evils.
And thus there are seven petitions in all, in which is universally asked whatever ought to be asked; and this indeed quite fittingly, so that the sevenfold number of petitions corresponds to the sevenfold number of divine gifts and of the gifts of sevenfold grace.
On account of which it should be noted that sacred Scripture sets before us a sevenfold septenary for consideration, namely of the capital vices, of the Sacraments, of the virtues, of the gifts, of the beatitudes, of the petitions, and of the glorious endowments, three spiritual and four corporal, as will appear below: the septenary of vices as the first, from which we ought to withdraw; the septenary of the Sacraments as the second, through which we ought to advance; the septenary of the endowments as the last, which we ought to desire; the septenary of the petitions as the penultimate, by which we ought to ask: and the threefold intermediate septenary of the virtues, the gifts, and the beatitudes, through which we ought to pass: so that, praising the name of the Lord and praying seven times a day, we may obtain the sevenfold grace of the virtues, gifts, and beatitudes, by which we may overcome the sevenfold battle of the capital vices and arrive at the sevenfold crown of the glorious endowments, with the aid nonetheless of the sevenfold medicine of the Sacraments divinely established for the restoration of the human race.